If you are the Packers right now, here's your dilemma.

A franchise icon, no less revered than Starr and Lombardi, is in the dying throes of his career.

His abilities, although diminished, clearly indicate that he can captain the offense to playoff caliber success - if only he had sufficient resources.

He has yet to commit to playing another season, even though he is technically under contract. Retirement looms again this winter, even more real than it did last year.

The current lineup, is a nothing more than a cheap shell of a legitimate NFL team, as injuries have carpet bombed an already thinning roster of talent.

With a record of 2-10, the team is tantalizingly close to the number one overall pick this spring. Most likely sitting in this draft are two heart-stopping prospects from reigning college colossus USC.

Your "heir apparent" at quarterback is a first-round pick from last year, sitting on the sidelines still in his original packaging. The curious know he's not ready to win, but they would still like to see him play a little before they put the winter tarp on Lambeau Field.

The icon has been turning in increasingly desperate performances as of late, and nobody can blame him. He is however, sustaining an awful beating, the kind that makes guys dream about cutting grass on a warm day in Mississippi.

The coach is a steadfast loyalist to the icon, refusing to even consider the notion of benching him. This is either a measure of his true devotion and respect, or perhaps a fearful pandering aimed at enticing one more year of service.

Complicating it all, is that number. Two-hundred-seventeen.

In short, your franchise is at a 10-year crossroads. So what would you do, Mr. Bigshot Couch GM? Do you cave to sentimentality and the vague notion of "respect?" Or do you clench your jaw and just "do what needs to be done?"

Think it over and get back to me with an answer.

(Insert Jeopardy music here.)

OK, I'm back. I spent two minutes on it, and I think I've got it.

Bench him, throw in Aaron Rodgers for this last month, and let the chips fall.

Of course, you should bend over backwards as an organization to emphasize that this was the "honorable" thing to do. No player, especially one like Favre, should have to risk his life with such a motley crew of talent around him. Say a million times how Favre has single-handedly hoisted this team to be as feisty as a 2-10 squad can be. And above all, mention how much the organization looks forward to a rested and recharged Favre to make another run in 2006 with better talent and more health.

It should be easy, but I know why it's not. For most NFL teams this is what happens at the rump-steak portion of a wasted NFL year. Of course you want to win, but if ever there was a time to experiment and evaluate a little, it's now. There's no hand wringing or bellyaching about it.

But it's also hard, because it means finally walking away from the warm cocoon of "What You Know" as a franchise. When the most critical component of a football team is also the most enduring constant for 15 years, I can excuse a head coach, general manager, or an entire football loving population for being just a little bit scared to death of that amorphous and uncertain thing called "What Comes Next."

But guess what? It's here. And it doesn't care.

"What Comes Next" has been knocking on the door so long and loud, the next knock is going to be a kick that blows that door in. At which time, you won't be controlling the transition process, you'll be trying to catch up with it.

There's an understandable desire to give Favre the so-called "final edit" on the closing scenes of his own career in Green Bay. Many in fact, say that he has "earned it." But if he really does want control of that "final edit" then he's under an obligation to at least call it.

Even icons, don't get to have it both ways. Had Favre given the Packers a reasonably certain commitment for 2006, then none of this would be happening. But he's unwilling to say for sure whether he's staying or going..

Maybe Favre really does want to be a player who allows his departure to be buried behind a podium in the depths of winter, devoid of an awkward ceremonial farewell before the home crowd counting down his last games.

If it so, then the Packers can certainly deliver by pulling him from the next home game 4th quarter to an ovation that could fill an entire one-hour NFL Films special.

The conventional wisdom is that a benching now, would be an affront to him for how gamely he's fought this year for the team, thus accelerating his desire to get on that lawnmower.

But logically speaking, a benching now might actually have the reverse effect of pushing Favre to return for one more year. Stung by the losing of this wretched season, its hard to imagine a competitive warrior like himself allowing these to be the final unfortunate chapters.

There's an even more unspeakable scenario that one Brian Nelson from The Hog is advocating: Favre is tanking it - on purpose! The wily, cagy vet that he is, "the four-car" is throwing even more egregious blooper balls than ever, because he would love to return one more season with a lightning bolt running back like Reggie Bush over his shoulder. Throw in a retooled o-line, healthy receivers, and a Charmin-soft last place schedule, and boy oh boy could we be having some fun next year!

But I don't believe it. Nah. Favre lay down? Even for the ultimate good of the franchise? Never.*

(*Well, unless you are his buddy Strahan going for the sack record ... OK, let's not go there.)

The more likely explanation is the one right in front of everyone's nose. A loved one's career is dying in Packerland, and its like everyone in the family is simply too much in denial to do anything about it. At the very least, you could help him pass on with some dignity, or perhaps do something bold to ensure that he lives another year.

Or you can just sit there and weep bravely. Which apparently is what Mike Sherman plans to do.